Friends Bulletin-Pacific Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends-December 1967

Friends Bulletin

PACIFIC YEARLY MEETING OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
VOLUME 36, NUMBER 4 DECEMBER, 1967

FRIENDS WORLD COMMITTEE FOR CONSULTATION

Address given by MARGARET GIBBINS, Executive Secretary of the European Section of the World

Committee to Pacific Yearly Meeting 1967.

“What is the chief end of Man? Mans chief
end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever .”
This is the first question and answer in the cate-
chism issued by the Church of Scotland. The
question is a searching one, and the reply a shout
of praise and joy. This, I believe, is what life
is for, but there are conditions attached before
one knows or experiences the joy, the glory, the
enjoyment. Search and discovery are experi-
enced each day by every one of us, but before
one may enjoy God forever one has to forget
oneself, lay aside one's own problems and share
with one’s neighbor what one has found of worth,
spiritually, mentally, and materially.

As Martin Buber, whom I dearly love — his
work, and the man when I met him — put it, “You
think / am far away from you, but in your love
for your neighbors, you will find Me; not in his
love for you, but in yours for him.” (That is the
rub often for most of us.) He who loves brings
God and the world together. If one tries to glori-
fy and enjoy Him, intent on one’s own fulfill-
ment, divorced from the world around about
one, then the glory and the joy are a sham. The
reality does not exist and one hasn’t even begun
to learn how to love God and man. I have found
that at rare intervals when one does accept the
conditions, one can catch a fleeting hold of the
experience, and at that moment the reality is full
of wonder ; but alas, one does not always fulfill
the requirement, and one is then bereft of the
joy and the inward peace.

What is the “how” and the “why” of the
Friends World Conference for Consultation
and the Fourth World Conference? It is in-
teresting that it was in part a memorandum
from Germany Yearly Meeting in 1929 that
helped awaken Friends to their need of each
other across national boundaries: “It has
always been clear that the formation of a
Yearly Meeting could not be an end in itself
but only the means by which to work out-
wards from this center . . . The task affects
not only Germany Yearly Meeting as one
in itself, secluded and separated from the
fellowship of the rest of the Yearly Meetings
. . . (think of this just now in connection with
East Germany) ... but the penetration of
a fundamental way of thought over the whole

world and in all human relationships. We
believe the time has come to put all our
common strength together. There the great
task lies. Let us go further along the road
which leads from the limitation of our single
Yearly Meeting to the community of a great
Religious Society of Friends.”

The First World Conference was in 1920.
A continuing committee was formed to see
if the time had come to form a World Com-
mittee but found the Society wasn’t ready
for this revolutionary prospect and was laid
down.

In 1937 the Second World Conference of
Friends met in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.
Friends realized again their need of each
other, decided to put “all their common
strength together where the great task lay,”
and the Friends World Committee for Con-
sultation was born. Of course, there were
fears expressed — about the rights of individ-
ual Yearly Meetings, fears that a large inter-
national body might try to speak for the
whole Society — so the telling phrase was
limited by the words “for Consultation.”
There are those who after thirty years still
guard these two words diligently. There are
those, yes, in America, who quietly appear
to drop them; in the Minutes of the first
European Section meeting in 1938 the sen-
tence appears “in every day practise the last
two words would be dropped.”

In 1937 there was already an international
committee in Europe, through the work of
Friend Carl Heath who was so keen on
setting up Quaker embassies, which became
the European Section of the new World Com-
mittee. An American Section was formed
with the American Friends Service Commit-
tee represented on it. To get going quickly
the Chairman and Secretary of the European
committee, Carl Heath and Fred Tritton,
both Englishmen, were asked to act as Chair-
man and Secretary for the full World Com-
mittee for the beginning time. It was hoped
that other sections would be established,
but so far this hasn’t happened. I imagine
we are now within about two years of an
African Section coming into being, and prob-

DECEMBER, 1967— PAGE 2

FRIENDS BULLETIN

ably there will be an Asian Section in the
not too distant future.

The first European Section meeting took
place in 1938, attended by representatives
from America; the next was in 1939 in Gen-
eva. Then the war came, and Friends didn’t
meet again until 1946 in England, when the
opening Minute recorded “This present meet-
ing is a proof that spiritual values could not
be destroyed by war or persecution, or ter-
ror, or by anything in the world. Friends
knew that across the flaming frontiers other
Friends were living and praying, united with
one another in love, and even though their
faith was sometimes sorely tried, they never
gave up their belief in the City of God tri-
umphing over Destruction. This experience,
which we of many countries have gone
through, places upon us a very particular
responsibility. May our worship and dis-
cussion be guided by God so that we may
see His will for us as an international Society
of Friends with His tasks to perform in the
coming days.”

What were the tasks seen by the World
Committee?

— To encourage and strengthen the spiritual
life within the Society of Friends, through
such measures as the promotion of intervis-
itation, study, conferences, and a wide shar-
ing of experiences at the deepest spiritual
level.

— To help Friends gain a better understand-
ing of the world-wide character of the So-
ciety of Friends and its vocation in the world
today.

— To promote consultation among Friends
of all cultures, countries and languages.

— To promote understanding between
Friends of all countries and members of
other branches of the Christian church and
with members of other religious faiths.

— To keep under review the Quaker contri-
bution in world affairs.

Has the Committee accomplished these
tasks? The answer is, I believe, “Yes, to
some extent,” though there are endless pos-
sibilities still before us. Many examples could
be quoted of attempts to carry out its func-
tions: I will give you some out of my own
experience, starting with the Quaker Youth
Pilgrimage.

As you know, you have two young people
from Pacific Yearly Meeting on that Pil-
grimage at the moment. This is the fifth Pil-
grimage when fourteen American high school
teenagers join fourteen Europeans, partly
London Yearly Meeting, partly from the con-
tinent, for a month, first with two weeks in
the northwest of England, learning about
the Quaker country, meeting with such peo-
ple as Elfrida Vipont Fouldes . . . discussiing,

worshipping, having a good time together,
and becoming knit together into an amazing
unity. This has happened every time. They
then normally move to a city, London this
year, where they meet with the young
Friends in the area, and widen their scope:
but they have grown very close together in
this fortnight, and they do not want to meet
easily with other people. Then they are
pushed into a work camp, this year in Ger-
many, serving a community: again, at the
beginning they resent it because they wish
to remain as a unity. They have found each
other, and do not wish to share! But they
come to realize that this is something that
faces us all in life, moving into action in a
wider sphere, forgetting themselves: that
they too will gain with the experience. This
is one of the most important aspects of work
that the World Committee has established.
There has not yet been a “best” Quaker
Youth Pilgrimage!

* *

The FWCC has organized ,of course, a
great deal of visitation. Recently four of us,
including Hugh Doncaster, paid a visit to
Friends in Lebanon and Jordan. It was
really a visit bewteen family members; but
moving into the very tense situation one is
immediately overwhelmed by the great
problems; there is no escape, and perhaps
there should not be. The Friends of the
Near East Yearly Meeting are very con-
scious that as a Society we have done so
much for Jewish people that we are apt to
forget that there is also an Arab situation.
They begged us to remind Friends around
the world that they too need consideration,
understanding, and to be remembered in
our prayers. We all spoke to mnay Friends,
and whatever the discussion back it came
to their own problem there. A Friend, a
doctor, to whom we were saying, “Now,
look! Israel exists . . . must be accepted!”,
answered to me, “Margaret, someone is
sleeping in my bed.” What answer has one
to this? But out of our visit came one,
among others, positive and unprecedented
contribution: In their Epistle, for the first
time, appeared the word that God was Father
of the Arab, but was also Father of the Jew.
Our visit there was in some respects then
a visit of loving concern, but in part of recon-
ciliation, and they now feel themselves linked
very closely with the FWCC, especially with
the European Section. Arising out of the
World Conference there will be another visit
of two Friends there, probably in September.
* * *

East German Friends of course feel their
isolation very definitely. We had hoped to
have three at the World Conference: West-

FRIENDS BULLETIN

DECEMBER, 1967— PAGE 3

ern authorities agreed, but the Americans,
and it would have been the same from the
British, made the condition that travel docu-
ments must be got through the Allied Travel
Bureau, as we do not recognize an East Ger-
man passport; then the East German author-
ities said, “Our passports are perfectly all
right; we will not pass through the Allied
Travel Bureau in West Berlin,” and it be-
came a political issue.

I have visited Quaker groups in East Ger-
many with a Norwegian Friend three times
in the last few years, holding many public
meetings in various tongues in various cities;
we stayed in Friends’ homes and talked long
into the nights. In Eisenach with a Friend
whose two sons had defected to the west,
we looked across the border, and she said
to me what perhaps highlights feelings in
this isolation, “Margaret, as you look to the
West, will you remember that I will possi-
bly never see my grandchildren, nor my
grandchildren ever see me.” It is in this
situation that our East German Friends live
and witness, and it is through the World
Committee, in part, that we manage to keep
them in touch with a wider body of Friends.

We are very much concerned to revive
the Friends’ travel in the ministry. There
may be many Friends capable, willing, and
with the time to give this service, but prob-
ably these Friends are ones who would not
offer, and it may be that we have to lay it
on some Friends. In Europe we laid it re-
cently on a German Friend, Otto Frick: his
wife died two years ago, and he did not
think he could possibly undertake such ser-
vice; but in the end, he has just been to
Switzerland, and the experience both for
the Swiss Friends and for Otto Frick him-
self has been so overwhelming in the min-
istry that he would not accept any expenses

at all but has given it in memory of his wife.
* *

There is, in the world family of Friends,
a huge ecumenical membership. We remem-
ber the FWCC Meeting in Kenya in 1961
and the complete amazement of some of the
village East African Friends that there were
Friends from India, from Japan, that there
was even an American negro among us!
They thought all Friends were of the Amer-
ican Board of Missions in Richmond. It was
equally an amazing experience for some
members of the World Committee to find
this huge, pulsating Yearly Meeting, over
30,000 strong, the result of missions. Sus-
picious, we are, many of us, of the work of
missions, and yet here were the Friends
before us who would not have been what
they were without the missions going to
them ... We were invited into many homes,

mostly much more humble than any among
Friends in Britian or America: thatched cot-
tages, mud floors, and little of this world’s
goods within them, but with tenderness and
love they poured out on us what they had
in their larders. Before every meal in those
homes the young children came round, one
with hot water, one with a basin, one with
soap, one with a towel, and we washed our
hands one after another before we gathered
at the table. This was really communion
among us.

— Another experience from FWCC must be
mentioned: the colloquia this year in Japan
and India: the report says, “The men left,
saying that they had never dreamed that
such an intimate exchange was possible be-
tween, on the one hand, Christians and
Buddhists, and on the other, Christians and
Hindu.”

T-

I have got to admit, however, that the
FWCC is not yet persona grata to all Friends
within our world family. One reason, cer-
tainly is that the Yearly Meeting represent-
atives on the Committee have so far failed
to convince all Friends of the need for it
or of its potential, and this is mea culpa also
to myself. A second reason is the afore-
mentioned fear of an international body
wielding power on behalf of the full Society.
A third reason, I believe, is the feeling in
certain branches of Quakerism that the
World Committee includes representatives
from Yearly Meetings with too liberal or
too unsound an interpretation of Quaker
belief.

Those of us who are convinced of its value
need somehow to transmit to others our
vision of what it can accomplish. I believe
the Society of Friends needs the World Com-
mittee.

Firstly, the World Committee can help
us to realize the powers, the depth, to re-
discover the touchstone of constancy in com-
mitment, of Quakerism by leading us to
wider encounters, within our own Yearly
Meetings, but particularly with Friends of
other Yearly Metenigs. These encounters
can free us completely to accept variety in
those areas which though important to some
of us, are not really vital to the heartbeat of
Quakerism.

There are terrific differences within our
Quaker groups. Friends of Japan and India
say that while they want to hold fast to the
roots of Quakerism they need to develop a
Japanese and an Indian form of Quakerism:
they do not wish to swallow an Anglo-Saxon
export. This doesn’t mean that the content
Continued on page 6)

DECEMBER, 1967— PAGE 4

FRIENDS BULLETIN

FRIENDS BULLETIN

2635 Emerald Street
Eugene, Oregon 97403

ALICE DART, Editor

VOL. 36, No. 4 DECEMBER, 1967

The official organ of news and opinion of Pacific
Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.

Second-class postage paid at Eugene, Oregon.

PUBLISHED monthly except bi-monthly in January-
February and July-August. Deadline for copy Is tenth
of month preceding issue; except first of September,
January, and July.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $3.00 per year. Monthly

Meetings are encouraged to collect and subscribe for
all their subscribers. Contributions beyond subscrip-
tions are welcome to help meet actual costs and reduce
Yearly Meeting subsidy. Contributions are tax exempt.
Receipts sent on request.

ADVERTISEMENTS: Classified— five cents a word;
subject to approval of contents.

PACIFIC YEARLY MEETING
OFFICERS

Presiding Clerk: MADGE T. SEAVER, 2160 Lake St.,
San Francisco, CA 94121.

Assistant Clerk: ROBERT McINNES, 1303 Madrone
PL, Davis, CA 95616.

Recording Clerk: RICHARD MANNERS, 6253 Temple
City Blvd., Temple City, CA 91780.

Statistical Secretary: MILDRED BURCK, 5820 N.

Vineyard Dr., Corvallis, OR 97330.

Treasurer: ROBERT YOUNG, 201 S. Lake Avenue,
Suite 305, Pasadena CA 91101
Young Friends Clerk: ROY DIMON, 13282 Herron,
Sylmar, CA 91342.

Junior YM Clerk: DAN BLICKENSTAFF. Rt. 1, Box
J-26, Nevada City, CA 95959.

COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN

Bulletin: MARY ETTER, 2815 Elinor St., Eugene, OR
97403.

Discipline: ESTHER RICHARDS, 2814 N.E. 27th Ave.,
Portland, OR 97212.

Education: Correspondent: ANN SCOTT, 570 Crauleigh,
Reno, NV 89502.

Finance: PATON CROUSE, 1238 111th N.E., Bellevue,
WA 98004.

Friends in the Orient: CATHERINE BRUNER, 1603
Woodland Dr., Stockton, CA 95207.

Friends Schools: HELEN STEVENSON, Argenta, B.C.,
Canada

History: WALT RAITT, 7919 Misty Lane, Stockton,
CA 95207.

Ministry and Oversight: HUGH CAMPBELL-BROWN,
Okanagan Landing, B.C., Canada

New Ways of Bringing Friends Together in Meetings:
PHILLIP WELLS, 6350 Trelawney Ave., Temple
City. CA 91780

Nominating: WALT RAITT, 7919 Misty Ln., Stockton,
CA 95207

Peace: To be appointed.

Permanent Site: ROBERT BARNS, 1836 Lehigh Dr.,
Davis, CA 95616.

PYM Holding Corporation: HARRY BAILEY, 13864
Sayre St., Sylmar, CA 91342

Social Order: To be appointed.

Visitation: CLIFFORD MASER, 215 De Armond Way,
Corvallis, OR 97330

1968

EXECUTIVE SWEETING March 16, 17

Friends Center San Francisco, California

YEARLY MEETING August 19-23

St. Mary’s College Moraga, California

FROM THE YEARLY MEETING
THE TREASURER

Robert Young has moved his offices to the fol-
lowing address, where all Yearly Meeting corres-
pondence to him should be sent:

Robert Young, PYM Treasurer
201 South Lake Ave., Suite 305
Pasadena, California 91101

FROM THE COMMITTEE ON THE
FRIEND IN THE ORIENT

Pacific Yearly Meeting at Claremont College in
August approved a concern of University Meeting,
Seattle, that we become more involved in the suf-
fering of Southeast Asia by sending one of our
members to Vietnam as “A Friend in the Orient.”

It is not felt that this person will be just another
doctor or social worker to serve with the American
Friends Service Committee or similar organization,
important as that will be, but a concerned Quaker
Presence in the area to represent us personally and
to keep us constantly aware of what is happening
to the people of Vietnam for which we each bear
responsibility and guilt.

The committee is searching for a suitable person
or couple to undertake this mission for us and
would welcome suggestions.

In the meantime we are asking members and
meetings of PYM (and any other concerned friends)
to assure us of the necessary five or six thousand
dollars to cover the first year of such a mission.
This letter is being addressed to the clerk of each
Meeting to ask him to keep his Meeting informed
of this concern and to inquire of his Monthly Meet-
ing if they would like to make a contribution to the
project. Letters will be sent soon to all members of
the Yearly Meeting asking for help (a pledge of
monthly contributions for a year would be most
satisfactory) but Monthly and Quarterly Meetings
will also, we hope, budget money for this work.

Friends should not confuse this concern with that
of a special fund for medical relief to Vietnam to
be sent through the Canadian Friends Service Com-
mittee which was also approved by Yearly Meeting.
The two concerns are mutually compatible but sep-
arately financed and administered, as is also true
of the work in Asia of the American Friends Service
Committee.

Checks should be made out to the Treasurer
(address above) and clearly designated for which-
ever fund intended.

CATHERINE BRUNER, Chairman

A CHRISTMAS SUGGESTION

A beautiful new edition of Floyd and Ruth
Schmoe’s A YEAR IN PARADISE is available.

Paperback $1.95

Hard Cover $3.75

(Add 20 cents for mailing)

12016, 87th N.E., Kirkland, WA 98033

(or your bookstore) — Adv.

FRIENDS BULLETIN

DECEMBER, 1967— PAGE 5

FROM THE FRIENDS
WORLD COMMITTEE

The Committee held business sessions in August,
dealing primarily with the following concerns:

(1) Developing the FWC as a world body of
Friends in touch with Friends scattered all over
the world (seeking to meet their needs and to draw
upon their skills and aid). (2) Visiting in the Min-
istry. This might include visitation of Meetings in-
side one’s own country as well as abroad. Encour-
agement might be given to suitable persons who
may be hesitant to offer themselves for such ser-
vice. Individuals and groups working for the service
bodies might also benefit from the visits of those
travelling in the ministry. (3) A trans-national ap-
proach to Friends mission and service work. (4)
Communication among African Friends hopefully
leading to an African Section of the FWC, and con-
sideration of an Asian section as well. (5) Ecumen-
ical relationships with other Christian bodies, to
the World Council of Churches and to other World
Religions.

Action of the Committee following thoughtful
discussions of these areas was as follows:

(1) Authorization for a small consultative con-
ference, if possible within a year, to include repre-
sentatives of Friends Mission and Service bodies
which would consider these concerns: a) ways of
encouraging increased consultation between exist-
ing agencies; b) possibilities for timely trans-na-
tional operations; c) cooperative pilot projects per-
haps including technical assistance and economic
development; d) extension of world Quaker publi-
tions; and e) provision for appropriate, regular con-
sultations on these matters. (2) To seek and appoint
additional staff for these projects, subject to secur-
ing funds for these purposes. (3) Appointment of
two Friends, Harold Smuck, Friends United Mis-
sion Board Secretary, and Ranjit Chetsingh of In-
dia, to visit Friends in Jordan. (4) Agreement to
make no plans for a fifth World Conference pend-
ing wide discussion among Friends which could be
reported at the next triennial meeting to be held
in Sweden. Opinion ranged from the feeling that this
should be the last because of cost of effort, to the
position that we should reduce the length of time
between conferences to nine or even six years.

Reports were heard from the Executive Secre-
tary, Blanche Shaffer; William Huntington, director
of the Quaker United Nations team; and from
Howard Diamond, retiring treasurer. Six different
Friends acted as recording Clerks, each for one
session. Douglas Steere, chairman, was appointed
to serve for another three years.

Floyd Moore, World Conference Secretary, pre-
sented the following statistical report on the Con-

ference:

Delegates from Yearly Meetings 904

United States 586

Canada 14

Central and South America 33

Europe 200

Asia 20

Africa 27

Australia and New Zialand 24

Young Friends work staff 35

George School drama students 28

35 countries were represented; 47 of the 51 Yearly
Meetings sent delegates.

Greensboro Gathering . . . 276 from 17 countries
(197 from U.S.).

VIRGINIA HECK

Pacific Yearly Meeting Representative

FROM THE AFSC CORPORATION
MEETING, OCTOBER, 1967

My first view of the American Friends Service
Committee about half its lifetime ago saw it as a
sort of communion of Saints who in silence inhaled
the light of God and then exhaled miracles of social
wisdom and service. This view was brought to
earth during my days in C.P.S. camps. More re-
cently, as I have become involved in the northwest
regional AFSC I have felt enmeshed in a four di-
mensional net of in and out reaching connections
which works in an amazingly functional and sensi-
tive way. So, when asked to represent the Yearly
Meeting as a member of the AFSC Corporation, I
was intrigued with the possibility of participation
in its inner workings.

The Corporation discussions centered around a
report which expressed the hope that the links
between Friends’ Meetings and the AFSC could be
strengthened and deepened in meaning; a sugges-
tion was made that Yearly Meetings might appoint
representatives to an “advisory council” to meet
annually for two days to “formulate and adopt
minutes of policy and advice to the AFSC.” The
ensuing discussion was in summary: 1) There ap-
pears to be a changing perception of the role of
the AFSC from primarily that of a relief organiza-
tion to one which attempts to alleviate and find
solutions for problems behind the difficulties which
create the need for relief. The question of relief
is not difficult to define; the question of allevation
and solution of problems is more complex, and
Quakers and others in the AFSC no longer easily
find unity in their determination. 2) Because of
this shift in emphasis, the AFSC relationship to
Yearly Meetings is of increasing importance. Is
this relationship merely a legal necessity, or is it
a possible source of inspiration and direction?

Voices heard during the discussion: — “The AFSC
has never claimed or could claim to be representa-
tive of Friends as a whole. If we attempted that,
we would lose our spontaneity.” — “To look to the
past is to become conservative. Consider how rev-
olutionary the D.A.R. is today.” — “The AFSC
shouldn’t have to be a channel for all Friends
concerns. If its ferment works, it should stimulate
meetings to take up their own concerns and act on
them.” — “We are dead if we are not in places where
there is trouble.” — “The AFSC is a recruiter of
members for Quaker meetings.” — “We won’t get
the kind of persons we want in the Corporation
unless we give them real responsibility.” — “If we
ask advice of some Yearly Meetings we may simply
create battlegrounds.” — “A large number of persons
with whom we work are not represented here.”

The AFSC Board meeting held the same day in-
cluded reports on possible ways to increase our
relevance in the College program, a survey of AFSC
Family Planning Activities, report on Vietnam
Summer, status of the projected Quaker mission
to North Vietnam and others. Of deep interest and
concern was a minute from the New England Peace
Committee and Executive Committee suggesting
that in order to make a clear witness of our dis-
approval of our government’s posture in Vietnam
the AFSC should (1) withdraw its relief and re-
habilitation program from Vietnam with an ac-
companying public statement; (2) explore the pos-
sibility of having an international committee of
Friends assume responsibility for AFSC projects
there; and (3) hire more community organizers in
this country who can help develop broad based
and outspoken opposition to the war. Both support
for this minute and questionings of it were voiced
(Continued on page 10)

DECEMBER, 1967— PAGE 6

FRIENDS BULLETIN

FRIENDS WORLD COMMITTEE

(Continued)

of the message is changed, or diluted, neces-
sarily,but that new forms, new methods of
presentation and interpretation, need to be
adapted to suit other cultures . . . The tiny
group of Friends in Barcelona, Spain who
have emerged from a Catholic background,
rejoice in their new-found Quakerism, which
for them though it is demanding is so liberal
. . . I have met Friends who use completely
different modes of expression from my own,
facing fairly recently such questions as
“When were you saved? Bo you accept the
Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Sav-
iour?” In the Epistles from the Yearly Meet-
ings I find such variety, as “we are searching
for a new language, for new energies and
skills to reach each other and to reach out
in a despairing world” . . . and nearly on
the next page “The blessed truth has found
its way into hearts as has been evidenced
by the splendid altar services of earnest
speakers.”

We are, in our beloved Society, offered
a unique opportunity for encounter at any
regional or world conference, to know each
other as Friends from varied backgrounds
and cultures, to listen to each other — we are
not awfully good at this — to examine our
Quaker faith and its interpretations. We
need to pray our way through. To discover
where we stand, and what if anything we
have to say as a world body.

Such an exercise demands a very loving, a
very patient heart, a lack of fear in facing each
other in our differences, a willingness to look
afresh at long-held cherished opinions that are
ours, and preconceived ideas that are ours, and
to search together for words and expressions
which convey meaning to men and women today.
The crying need for us as Friends is to have
time and to spare for real encounter; and dur-
ing that encounter for really being pertinent:
not with only a bit of ourselves! Noth with our
heads only, but with our hearts as well; not
“ how do you do?” a few moments woship to-
gether and “goodbye.” We need time to meet
and worship together, to separate and think about
it; to come together again to discuss, listen, and
learn. We need above all for this experiment
humility and abandon that ivill result in the way
of the Lord and not that of any one group or
Friend .

There is no comfortable security along this
path; but certainty ivill be revealed to us as we
search and find together. “ Tell me of your cer-
tainties,” said Goethe, “I have doubts enough
of my own.” Emerging from this travail we
dare not hug our faith to ourselves, or we will

become apathetic and sterile. We’ve got to share
our certainties with Friends and with our neigh-
bors, those seekers who sit outside the church,
not force-feeding our Quakerism to them, but
encouraging and strengthening ourselves while
presenting what might be the answer for them.
God doesn’t say, “This way leads to me, and
that way does not.” He does say; “ Whatever
you do may be a way to me, provided you do it
in such a way that it leads to me.”

I also believe the Society of Friends needs
the World Committee because with its in-
ternational constituency the Committee can
make us more knowledgeable and aware of
the world of our neighbors, pointing out
ways where we can move into action in that
world. It can provide opportunities only pos-
sible for an international body to recognize
and uphold concerns of the whole Society.
This may then call for individual or for
group action or when we meet on a world-
wide scale we may achieve commitment of
the whole world Society of Friends.

The face to face meeting of the Fifth
World Conference is over. The torch which
was lit for each one of us present at Guilford
has now to be used by us to set fire to those
held by all other Friends waiting every-
where. It’s difficult to make live for you
what we shared so that you too are caught
up in a realization of the amazing possibili-
ties that are now before us. In this you must
help us by being open to receive, ready to
enter into the depth of concern which moved
the whole conference and out of which
emerged the burning issues I will briefly
lay before you.

Start at the place of recommital, laying aside
what separates and divides us and meet each
other at the deep center where we are truly in
the presence that unites. The living experience
of God is what matters, and that, we discovered
at Guilford, is known when form takes its in-
significant place while we praise and thank God
together, accepting that true worship lies in
giving to God undivided attention so that the
spirit can become manifest. We quickly laid
aside the terms “programmed” and “unpro-
grammed.” We worshipped in hymn and in
word, and we waited on the Lord.

In love, and in truth, we faced each other and
our God in open encounter, and as we sought
God together, we really found each other. The
search revealed a treasure that is beyond price,
and Friends knew that Quakerism, in all its
different forms, is far greater and wider and
stronger than any one group had realized at all.
The doors for that creative encounter are now
wide open, and 1 do pray that never again will
they be closed. Here every one of us must work:
and it is hard work, to appreciate, accept, and
love the other Friend whose interpretation and

FRIENDS BULLETIN

DECEMBER, 1967— PAGE 7

language we perhaps don't yet fully grasp, and
maybe don’t even want to, but whose message
rings out as clearly as our own. Together we
have got to say, “Oh, come let us worship and
bow down, let us kneel together before the Lord,
our Maker.”

During the Conference it ivas felt right to have
a plenary session for worship with short intro-
ductions by two Friends from different back-
grounds of Quakerism. About ten of us met that
morning to arrange it, very unsure about how to
present the evening meeting. We worshipped to-
gether and shared our thinking; the pattern fell
into place . . . the intensity of this w or ship re-
mains with me as one of the most wonderful
experiences 1 have gone through . . . we sep-
arated, handing over the evening session to God.
In the evening Friends straggled into the audi-
torium. We had hoped that organ music would
induce Friends to settle down quietly ; it didn’t.
We then sang. The two appointed Friends spoke
briefly. A Bible passage was read. Then we
waited. And after a short time, out from the
silence rose voices, one after another : voices
from Mexico, from Guatemala, Cuba, East Af-
rica, Jamaica . . . proclaiming the message of
Jesus Christ, testifying to the joy of commit-
ment, alive with the urgency for outreach. It
was a totally different Meeting from what I had
expected, yes, and what I had prayed for, and I
believe this was true for many of us; but, it
was an amazingly challenging call ivhich strip-
ped us all of sham pretences, from members
of our younger churches ivho spoke to us in
simple trust and in child-like faith. This place
of complete dedication is the place from which
all of us must now speak: / don’t believe we
can hold fast now to our own personal concept
of Quakerism, the one we like and feel at home
with. We know that beyond and below the dif-
ferences there is a solid foundation on which
essential Quakerism rests and from which it
rises. It isn’t easy to put it into words — as Hugh
Campbell-Brown said, “The experience lived at
Guilford.” It can, I am convinced, become real
for all of us, if we are willing to open our hearts
to the possibility.

Quakerism, as Hugh Doncaster said, has
a message which is relevant to the whole
world: It is concerned with commitment
which leads to involvement — in mission and
service; in peacemaking and peace keeping;
Black and White Power; people, food and
the sharing of resources; the problems of
Viet Nam and the Middle East; protests and
direct action; the future of Quakerism;
changing family patterns— I could go on.

What challenge has the World Conference
laid before us in a few of these diverse areas?
Mission and Service — this one caught our
imagination and will be carried forward. I
believe that they are joined together Inex-

tricably. Evangelical Friends claim that mis-
sion has three parts: proclamation, service,
fellowship. Some of the rest of us, perhaps,
hold that proclamation isn’t necessarily part
of Quaker commitment. I suggest that all
three parts are present for all of us, but
that proclamation may be voiced or un-
voiced. If we are members of our beloved
Society, then we certainly are not only
seekers but finders and having found must
be willing to share. Whether we put our
findings, even our strivings, into words, rests
upon each one of us, but I believe we do
share a responsibility to present what we
ourselves have discovered at the stage at
which we each may be.

At Guilford the thought and discussion of
many years crystallized to some extent with
the suggestion that wider consultation be-
tween various Quaker agencies of mission
and service should take place, looking for
new areas of cooperation and hoped-for vis-
tas of a world Quaker body, serving our
fellow men. Names have been suggested such
as “Quaker Service,” but this name does not
include the idea of mission; more thought is
needed. To undertake this consultation funds
and new personnel will be needed. The ap-
pointment of a Friend of vision, sensitivity,
and loving concern is essential to undertake
such a difficult task of consultation. The
World Committee is dedicated to this task.
Before us are exciting, fresh fields of co-
operation, but nothing will be accomplished
unless we all rejoice in the opportunity and
pledge ourselves to its fulfillment.

Another concern: can I bring to you the
two long rows of Friends who stood facing
each other on the Guilford campus, young
and old men and women, from many coun-
tries, in a silent vigil for peace? I found my-
self thinking of the needless suffering of
untold numbers, of the terror known by
children, the agony of the aged; and of the
young soldier that I recently sat beside on
a plane. On his way to Vietnam, he ex-
claimed, “I don’t want to kill anybody! I
would rather share a beer with him.” New
material from the FWCC will soon invite
Friends of all the Yearly Meetings to study
pre-conditions for international peace. From
the Conference came the testimony, “Peace
is more than the abolition of war, peace is
dynamic, peace is. Divine Love, implemented
through freedom and law.”

At another session we listened to the cry
not for Black or White, but for shared power
from a panel of five— a white American, a
South African, a Rhodesian, an East Af-
rican, and a negro American. The call of the
East African young mother was for a world
in which her African children could live. as

DECEMBER, 1967— PAGE 8

FRIENDS BULLETIN

equal human beings. Our American negro
Friend from out of the depths of his own
work and experience snapped us awake by
declaring, “What can you expect when we
drain love from the hearts of a people?” . . .
“When we stamp out love from the world of
experience, then hate, fear and distrust
emerge.” Words alone will not suffice; action
involving ourselves in personal commitment
must be our present response to the Divine
Command.

V V V

I have left to the last the future of Quak-
erism. Now that creative encounter has
taken place for such a large body of Friends
I only hope that somehow it may be possible
for it to continue, not only among theologian
Friends but that the rank and file may keep
this door open. It would be terrible if all
Friends had to wait another fifteen years
before another creative encounter.

More specifically, I believe with Hugh
Doncaster that the world is dying for lack
of Quakerism in action; I will turn it around
and say “Active Quakerism.” I will not ac-
cept, as was vaguely suggested in this Year-
ly Meeting, that we have outlived our use-
fulness or that the Society of Friends has
nothing essential to say to modern man.
What we have to say may not be new, but
essential it is, and we’ve got to find ways
of saying it. I would add that I am sure we
members don’t have the monopoly of active
Quakerism: this way of life is wide open
for all and followed by many.

There seem to me to be three essential
aspects of active Quakerism. First, Quaker-
ism places responsibility on the individual
and on the group. The individual must decide
whether to speak or be silent, to uphold or
restrain the individual. If Friends are soli-
tary, unable to meet with others, they should
be continually aware of the support of the
whole Quaker group behind them.

Secondly, Quakerism calls for decision.
The initial moment of decision for the indi-
vidual is in choosing the Quaker way, in con-
vincement. Probably my evangelical Friends
would say that is the moment of being saved.
But need for decision continues, day in and
day out, by each of us and by our groups.

We must try to face in the same direction;
decisions can be worked out together. After
decision comes involvement. How in prac-
tice may this be done? There is a simple
pattern for you, for me, and for the group,
there is only one answer; I have not always
practiced it, but when I do, life becomes
more of a whole, and days are faced in
greater quietness and confidence. The pat-
tern is the rhythm that Jesus himself used,
the rhythm of withdrawal, renewal, and re-
turn. Jesus withdrew to the mountain often,
to the desert, to the waters of the Jordan,
and was renewed, and returned with the
spirit of God upon him. In the wilderness
“the devil left him for a season.” (This com-
forts me.) He withdrew to the Mount of
Transfiguration, was renewed in the pres-
ence of his three disciples, and came down
off the mountain to heal the epileptic. He
withdrew in a way to the cross, kept faith
even there, and returned in the power of the
resurrection. However you interpret these
words the experience was and is alive. With-
drawal, renewal, return — for individual and
group. Thus could we say “We had every-
thing, and none of it is ours. We have, per-
force, to share.”

One of the newspaper reporters wrote
from Guilford: “A fundamental Quaker
preachment is that the way one lives must
reflect the Christian way in all things. Let
your life speak. That is a tough one to abide.
Nowadays, it just won’t do, loving a neigh-
bor as you love yourself. Especially if your
neighbor is ignorant, black, and needs a
bath; or even if he is educated, black, and
sponges off now and then. Another funda-
mental belief of Quakers is that there is that
of God in every man. Basically, it accounts
for humanistic endeavors that Quakers have
been about for 300 years. Their religion and
acts of compassion become inseparable, fus-
ing into one: they don’t say what ‘that’ is,
they just say it is there. I think it would be
wonderful to be a Quaker ... I am sorry
it’s so late — much too late.” We are Quakers:
for us it is not too late. We are part of our
own ecumenical family, with a job to be
done with joy, not despair, with hope, learn-
ing how to worship in depth and then moving
out to serve God’s children.

FRIENDS BULLETIN

DECEMBER, 1967— PAGE 9

LET YOUR LIVES SPEAK

This issue inaugurates a new column to publish from
time to time accounts of endeavors past, present, or
hoped for by Friends of Pacific Yearly Meeting to act
in the spirit of George Fox’s injunction. The, BULLETIN
hopes that individual Friends’ committees, and Meetings
will avail themselves of this opportunity to share their
inspiration and convictions, their ideas and techniques,
with the wider community of Frienls.

ON THE ANTI-DRAFT MOVEMENT

We who sign this feel a special urgency to speak
a common conscience regarding the growing anti-
draft movement. We feel it is historic. We feel it is
essentially good; though we do have reservations
about some parts of it.

We do not doubt that a probing critic can find
some very human evils in this young and groping
movement. But we feel that these are as nothing
compared to the far greater and prior evil of the
draft itself. Conscription is one of man’s most de-
humanizing ways of coercing his fellow man, the
more tragic and inexcusable in this country be-
cause the XIII Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
specifically and unequivocally outlaws all forms
of “involuntary servitude” except as punishment.

We who sign this feel a special responsibility
to speak because, as participants in a recognized
“peace church,” we have for many years been
granted special-privilege status within the draft
system, as conscientious objectors. This has tended
to blind us to the evil of the draft itself, and to the
treatment of those who don’t qualify for such a
draft classification.

We therefore applaud the courage of those who
refuse to let themselves be “used” to meet com-
mitments which are morally questionable at best,
and which, in any case, are not their own, especially
in view of the severe penalties threatened. We ap-
plaud even more those in totalitarian countries who
take such a stand; and they too will take courage
from the draft -refusers in America. These cour-
ageous young people do an incalculable service to
all of us, even to those who so strongly oppose
them.

In closing, we wish to address ourselves directly
to the draft-refusers as follows:

We support your right to refuse to be conscripted.
Even when you go beyond passive refusal to active
opposition and political action we pray for strength
to support you provided what is thereby required
of us does not conflict with our commitment to
what we conceive as “non-violence”: i.e. a com-
mitment to consider every individual, even one who
misuses us, as a sacred person, and never as a
mere means to our own or another’s ends no matter
how noble these may seem. We have found this
very difficult to do at times. But perhaps together
we can accomplish what we could not do alone.
You help give us courage to keep trying.

The following is a partial list of confirmed sign-
ers up to October 24, 1967; additional signatures are
being continually added:

ROBERT J. HEILMAN, Nevada City
MARILYN HEILMAN, Nevada City
HERBERT FOSTER, JR., Visalia
JAMES BALDRIDGE, Berkeley
ELAINE SCHOOLEY, Berkeley
BERNARD CHALIP Alameda
ALICE CHALIP, Alameda

LAURENCE CHALIP, Alameda

VIRGINIA O’ROURKE, Berkeley

ERNEST GOERTZEN, Berkeley

MARY LOU GOERTZEN, Berkeley

PAUL ROUSSEAU, Oakland

OLIVIA ROUSSEAU, Oakland

ALFRED F. ANDERSEN Berkeley

JENNEVIEVE IVESTIVICK, Berkeley

ELOY MAYES Alameda

JOHN F1TZ, Berkeley

HENRY G. LOHMANN, JR., San Francisco

ALFRED F. ANDERSEN
For an ad-hoc group of the Quaker faith from the
greater San Francisco Bay area.

A TOKEN OF WAR RESISTANCE

Speaking at the Tucson peace rally on October
21, Jim Corbett urged engagement in non-violent
action to help the victims of this war and to con-
front the anti-human policies of the United States
government by contributing to the medical aid pro-
gram of the Canadian Friends Service Committee.
(U.S. officials have said that Americans who send
aid for Vietnamese war victims who are outside
areas occupied by the U.S. are in violation of a
law for which they may be imprisoned up to 10
years and fined as much as $10,000, although none
of the many who have openly contributed has
yet been indicted.) He said, “Many of us in this
country feel that if we allow the government to in-
timidate us into ignoring any of the victims of U.S.
violence, our acquiescence would be a fundamental
betrayal of the spirit of love and truth. We also
believe our refusal to be intimidated should not be
surreptitious, but should be made visible. In order
to make our action visible and in order not to avoid
its social and legal consequences, some of us have
decided to wear an eight-pointed red-and-black
star, consisting of four lines crossed. This linear
star has been derived from the familiar Quaker
relief star, but it is distinct from it; it has no sectar-
ian, creedal, or political significance. Its practical
significance is that those wearing it are openly
aiding war victims in all parts of Vietnam and are,
consequently, felons in the eyes of the state. There
are no words or slogans with the red-and-black
linear star, so everyone will have to decide about
its meaning for himself. Maybe it’s a little like the
cross when it was still despised. Or maybe it’s
something like the yellow star worn by some
Danes during the Nazi occupation.”

Jim Corbett, Box 947, Florence, AZ 85232 will
send an emblem to any one who sends to him a
copy of his notice to the Treasury Department.
There is no reason for donors not to make their
own emblem. It consists of two red lines, one ver-
tical, one horizontal, and two black lines at a
45° incline, all intersectiong at their center.

JAMES A. CORBETT
Pima Meeting

DECEMBER, 1967— PAGE 10

FRIENDS BULLETIN

ASSISTANCE TO DELANO STRIKERS

Up to a few years ago the conditions among
farm workers described in “The Grapes of Wrath”
were essentially unchanged; wages were still often
below one dollar an hour, and housing and health
conditions were sometimes appalling. Early in 1955
an organizing effort among migrant farm workers
was begun in Delano, California, led by Caesar
Chavez, which achieved the first successes in win-
ning collective bargaining rights for farm workers.
Boycotts of products of growers in the San Joa-
quin Valley, while probably not hurting sales sig-
nificantly, were widely publicised then, and the
adverse publicity combined with the statesmanship
of Chavez and the obvious validity of his claims
on behalf of the workers gradually led to agree-
ments with a number of the growers. The workers
are still only recognized by a minority of growers,
and the strike goes on in the Central Valley; an
important part of this effort has been a consistent
core of striking families who have gradually built
up a self-help center providing food, medical facil-
ities, and housing for families involved.

Friends in California have been involved in sup-
port of the farm workers from the beginning, partly
because Caesar Chavez was already known to
Friends through his association with the AFSC
migrant labor project in the San Joaquin Valley;
and a number of Meetings in the College Park and
Southern California Quarterly Meetings continue
to help the striking families on some regular basis.
At this time several Meetings are part of a project
being coordinated by the Northern California Coun-
cil of Churches Migrant Ministry. Palo Alto Meet-
ing and College Park Meeting (and two Unitarian
groups) are responsible for visits and material
assistance on the “5th-Sunday” weekend of the
year.

Early in July a letter was received in Palo Alto
from Caesar Chevez of thanks for past visits and
help and describing the critical situation at that
time: “Nearly 120 families and 75 single men are
committed full time to the strike. Families aver-
age 608 children, so that the center in Delano is
now providing more than 1,000 men, women and
children three meals a day. Nearly 90% of the food
and money for this program must be provided by
concerned individuals and groups throughout Cal-
ifornia. The strike store had recently been without
meat, fruit, vegetables, and milk for several weeks
at a time, forcing families to use their $5 weekly
strike benefit for food necessities and leaving no-
thing for other necessities and emergencies. Our
families cannot survive in this way. If our people
cannot eat, the strike cannot survive. We have been
on strike for 21 months. In that time we have won
contract at 5 ranches including the giants Schen-
ley and DiGiorgio. Contract negotiations are in pro-
gress with Guerra Farms in Rio Grande, Texas.
(Organizing has begun also among farm workers
in other western states, notably Texas, where major
growers import subsidized labor from Mexico. Ed.),
Christian Brothers in Napa, and Mosesian and
Hourigan in Delano. Election procedures are pend-
ing at Paul Masson, Almaden and Gallo. We are
on our way. We have many battles to win. We
MUST not be defeated by hunger.”

The “5th-Sunday” groups made a special collec-
tion of food and money for Delano, suggesting
these items: flour, coffee, lard, canned milk, rice,
sugar, canned meat, corn, string beans, canned
fruits, dry cereals, Quaker Oats, jams and jellies,
tomatoes, juices, powdered milk, dried beans and
all kinds of staples; detergent, bleach, toilet paper,
soap. Checks can be sent to the Meeting or direct
to Delano Food Fund, P.O. Box 130, Delano, Califor-

nia 93215 (payable to National Farm Workers, Ser-
vice Center.)

On July 30 a number of families drove to Delano
(about 250 miles) staying overnight with Friends in
Visalia and delivering to the strike center some
$400 in contributions and donated food and cloth-
ing.

ALAN STRAIN

Peace and. Social Action Committee

Palo Alto Meeting

SUMMER CAMP FOR DELANO CHILDREN

After the close of the regular season at Hidden
Villa, we arranged a camp session for the children
of agricultural workers in the neighborhood of
Delano. Most of them were the children of families
involved in the strike, ages 5-13. Caesar Chavez’
son was one of them. Contact was made through
Anne Sample, a former counsellor at Hidden Villa,
now married to Dick Sample, who is one the staff
of the Migrant Ministry, a Council of Churches or-
ganization.

Thirty-five children arrived on Monday, August
28th and remained until Saturday, September 2nd.
From my regular staff I retained the cook, the
maintenance boy, and the riding counselor (the
last two served as volunteers. A staff of six ac-
companied the children in addition to Anne, who
was the director. The program consisted of hiking,
riding, swimming, arts and crafts, singing, games
and the miscellaneous camp activities. The combin-
ation of staff who knew the ranch and the mechan-
ics of food production with counselors who knew
the children worked very well. The Migrant Min-
istry provided the transportation and the insurance
policy. The camp donated the services of the cook
and some of the food grown on the ranch or left
over from the summer sessions. Palo Alto Meeting
donated $71.25 which was a very generous subsidy
for the food budget.

This was the first camp experience for these
children and for many of them the first time away
from their families. The concept of meal times as
a group experience, regular bed hours, responsibility
for camp chores, listening quietly to announcements,
etc. represented new situations for most of them. I
am sorry that I have not received any report as
yet (September 20) from the valley group so I am
not able to evaluate from their point of view. From
my observation here it was a worthwhile project
and I should like to suggest that the Meeting (Palo
Alto) consider sponsoring it gain in 1968 and either
include it in next year’s budget or arrange a special
collection as was done htis year.

JOSEPHINE DUVENECK

Palo Alto Meeting

FROM THE AFSC CORPORATION
MEETING

(Continued)

in the meeting. A need was felt for further clarifi-
cation and thought before a decision could be made.

The public meetings on October 21 were led by
AFSC staff members who have been involved in
various programs this past year.

David Stickney, until recently the field director
of the AFSC Vietnam Refugee and Rehabilitation
Program in Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam, ex-
pressed his conviction that by making its position
opposing the war clear, and by being careful to
maintain freedom of action to choose and discipline
staff, choose program and treat Viet Cong children
as well as others, the AFSC has been able to work
without compromising its integrity. He presented a
moving account of the work being done there and
summed it up saying, “What we have seen as a

FRIENDS BULLETIN

DECEMBER, 1967— PAGE 11

witness of love in Vietnam, others see as e bolster-
ing of the war effort.”

The scope of the AFSC program was further em-
phasized by Julian E Bulley, who described his
efforts as peace education secretary in Ohio to get
newsmen involved in meaningful seminars on
Peace and related issues; Earl G. Harrison, vho was
coordinator for a Tripartite Work and Study Pro-
ject with participants from Russia, Britain and the
U.S.A.; Stephen Thiermann, who described his work
as director of the AFSC Conferences and Semin-
ars Program in Europe involving 154 different per-
sons from 54 countries; Percy Baker, AFSC repre-
sentative to the Black Power conference in New-
ark; and M. Hayse Mizell, as director of the AFSC
South Carolina Community Relations Piogram who
told of the lack of progress being made in inte-
gration in the south, commenting that there are
more children in totally segregated schools now
than there were ten years ago when the Supreme
Court made its ruling.

Colin Bell, the AFSC Executive Secretary, in
closing the sessions, stressed that in his view the
AFSC has always contained two mutually comple-
mentary streams of activity: (1) which may be lik-
ened to first aid, is a direct response to human
need; and (2) which is more like preventative medi-
cine, consists of attempts to alleviate the basic
causes which create a need for relief. As just one
example of how some AFSC programs gain unex-
pected outreach: for a number of years we have
had small projects in equal housing. A report re-
cently completed on this has been given to the gov-
ernment and is now being seriously studied. To
sum it up, “Love does not make all things easy
but makes us choose what is difficult.”

CHARLES H. LUDWIG

Pacific Yearly Meeting Representative

FROM THE QUARTERLY MEETINGS

PACIFIC NORTHWEST QUARTERLY MEETING

met at Eastside Meeting House, Bellevue, Washing-
ton, October 21. The lovely wooded setting of the
meeting house was a welcome contrast to the ten-
sion felt in some of our considerations. Some of
our members were absent or delayed because they
were taking part in a demonstration against mili-
tary conscription. We agreed to send a minute of
loving concern to a former member who was among
those arrested earlier in the week for civil disobe-
dience. We considered a letter from PYM Clerk
about the setting up of a bank account to receive
money to aid civilian sufferers throught Vietnam.
We agreed to send a small contribution as an indi-
cation of our approval, but it was not a decision
easily reached.

The Education Committee asked that each
Monthly Meeting consider seriously and in depth
the concerns of Junior Friends regarding marriage,
social behavior, “pot,” language, etc. The Peace
Committee asked that each Monthly Meeting con-
sider in depth its peace testimony and report the
results in its next State of Society report.

Hearing from each meeting is always an impor-
tant part of our proceedings. We had in attendance
representatives from Argenta, Eastside, Tacoma,
University, Skagit-Whatcom Allowed, and Vancou-
ver, and in addition reports were sent from Calgary
and Victoria. Each report has its own flavor and
they cannot be summarized, but through them all
one senses the efforts to deepen the life of the
spirit and the fellowship among members. There are
many activities in the direction of peace and con-
cern for suffering because of war — both in actual
victims and those who suffer for conscience in its
opposition. Our international nature made itself felt

as we heard how some of the Canadian meetings
helping war refugees from the U.S. are themselves
being strengthened by the addition of young fami-
lies. There was also a feeling of the impact of the
Friends World Conference, through delegates and
study materials.

Our evening program consisted in a report of
the World Conference by three of our members
who attended. Ward Miles gave a general back-
ground. John Sullivan gave the essence of some
of the major messages and the development of the
special statements. Hazel Legge spoke of worship
in all its aspects.

Our next Quarterly Meeting will be in Tacoma,
Washington, April 6. It will be preceded by sessions
Friday evening and Saturday morning of young
people and adults considering together how we
communicate with each other.

ALICE MILES

WILLAMETTE QUARTERLY MEETING was held
in Eugene November 11, 12. Our desire is to in-
crease in friendship with each other through over-
night family visiting. Friends from all four meetings,
and from Portland Friends and John Day worship
groups were welcomed, as well as a number of
Young Friends from colleges up and down the
valley. The YF crowded into the Kellogg’s house,
and the Junior Friends camped with the Etters.

On Saturday night everyone from Junior Friends
on up met at the meeting house to listen to Margaret
Gibbins’ speech from Yearly Meeting. Her witness
was deeply felt and entered into the depth of the
Meeting for Worship on Sunday. Small group dis-
cussions on the World conference and on Yearly
Meeting were also held Sunday morning.

Reports to the Quarterly Meeting indicated that
all the Meetings are having a marked increase in
the number of students attending. Eugene Meeting
is sponsoring a weekly supper group attended by
numbers of students in addition to our Young
Friends. Multnomah and Corvallis and Portland
Friends WG have held excellent retreats. John Day
families have devised and have printed, available
on request, a placard suitable for car or home
windows, KEEP VIETNAM GREEN. (Write to Ted
Merrill, 515 E. Main St., John Day, OR 97845. Con-
tributions welcome.)

Junior Friends worked hard on plans for their
winter, spring, and summer camps, also getting set
for resuming next summer a joint camp with JF
from Washington.

Friends in this Quarter have been interested in
holding a summer conference in the northwest for
those unable to attend Yearly Meeting. The invita-
tion to join in this, extended to Pacific NW Quarter,
has, however, been declined by them as Washing-
ton Friends are already heavily involved in a
number of regular summer conferences in the
Seattle area. We decided to go ahead with
this for ourselves and any interested guests in
the years when the Yearly Meeting is held else-
where. The Monthly Meetings are increasingly de-
veloping their own retreats, and the two-day Quar-
terly Meeting sessions appear to fill the need for
other regional gatherings.

Consultations are under way with Pacific NW
Quarter for carrying the increased responsibilities
which will be involved in holding Yearly Meeting
in the northwest every other year.

Emphasis was given to the need for support for
the appeal for money to finance the expanding CO
counselling services weighing increasingly on the
regional AFSC offices.

ALICE DART, Clerk

DECEMBER, 1967— PAGE 12

FRIENDS BULLETIN

NOTES FROM HERE AND THERE

ANNOUNCEMENT

HANYA ETTER (Berkeley) and GUNTER TRAG-
ESER, of Germany, will be married Sunday, Decem-
ber 31 at 2 p.m. in the Friends Meeting House in
Eugene, Oregon. They will live in Germany following
the wedding. A cordial invitation is extended to all
Friends. R.S.V.P. Mary Etter, 2815 Elinor St., Eu-
gene, OR 97403.

NEWS OF FRIENDS

MARGARET GI3BINS’ opening remarks at Yearly
Meeting included: “It is inevitable that I reminisce
of my first visit to Pacific Yearly Meeting in 1953
at Beulah Park; I had come from the London
Yearly Meeting with all its tradition and formality,
and I appreciated very much your informality. Phil-
lip Wells was Clerk at that time and arrived with
a large cardboard box, advertising some drink or
other, in which were the precious Minutes of the
Yearly Meeting. I must say that it Is impressive now
to listen to the work and the thought of Pacific
Yearly Meeting — I hope I am not going to be back
in London Yearly Meeting the next time I come . . .
I hope you keep your informality and spontaneity
. . . Travelling at that time with Peggy Church on
our way to visit Friends in Canada, during the time
of McCarthy, we were stopped at the Canadian bor-
der and really quite thoroughly put to the test: “What
documents did I have, what food, fruit,” and so on,
thumbing through my passport very effectively; and
after deciding we could continue the official shouted
after us: “Huh, two Quakers on the loose!” . . .
And now she has writen “It was certainly a wonder-
ful experience for me to come back ... I love
meeting all my former friends and making new ones.
Please will you convey to members of Pacific Yearly
Meeting my very, very sincere thanks for making
me so welcome, and to the finance committee for
making it possible. In a strange way, I feel I belong
with Pacific Y.M. Friends.”

JOHN ULLMAN (La Jolla) has moved to Oakland,
California (3565 Dimond Ave., Apt. 17, Oakland, CA
94602) to be near his daughter.

MEL ACHESON (Pima) has been sentenced to
serve two concurrent 3-year terms at McNeil Island
Federal Prison for draft resistance. Anyone wishing
to write may use the following address: Amy Ache-
son, c/o Dan Beverly, Box 112, Orting, WA 98360.
Amy would welcome letters.

FROM THE MEETINGS

MONTEREY PENINSULA MEETING has a new
meeting house at 1057 Mescal Street in Seaside.
It is expected to serve also as a Friends Center and
a place for community activities.

VANCOUVER MEETING has outgrown its old
meting house; it has been sold, and they are pres-
ently renting at 505 W. 13th Avenue, Vancouver.
They are planning to build and will welcome gifts
or loans in any sum. Friends who would like to
help in this way could send checks made out to
the Society of Friends to Christine Ullmann, Treas-
urer, 3913 West 13th Ave., Vancouver 8, B.C.

UNIVERSITY MEETING held a Thrashing Session
in October instead of their Monthly Meeting. Four
groups considered Membership; Responsibility for
children not attending Meeting for Worship; Coun-
selling, professional vs. religious; and the Status
of Attenders at Business Meetings.

FROM ALL QUARTERS

FRIENDS MEETING FOR SUFFERINGS OF VIET-
NAMESE CHILDREN (MSVC) in September heard
reports from its delegates to Vietnam: Morgan Sib-
bett, Jan de Hartog, and Mary Graves. These dele-
gates had visited all orphanages designated by the
Vietnamese Government as having children eligible
for adoption, and in most they found heart-rending
problems of overcrowding and under-staffing, with
accompanying lack of comfort and adequate care.
The total cost per month per child has risen to
$28 instead of $20 as anticipated. Of the fourteen
orphans Mary Graves was able to recommend for
adtpion twelve are already assigned to adoptive
parents. Others will be assigned to the thirty-one
other MSVC families approved by social agencies
in the United States or in process of approval,
Morgan Sibbett is now in Vietnam for three months
to expedite the emigration.

MSVC now hopes, with cooperation from other
agencies, to establish a reception center in Vietnam
large enough and sufficiently well equipped to ac-
commodate any children available for adoption and
to assure dependable care for them. (MSVC’s mail-
ing address is P.O. Box 38, Media, PA 19063.)

EXPERIMENT IN SILENCE
for college Young Friends will take place
December 29-January 1 at Foy and Eliza-
beth Van Dolsen’s Farm, at Gualala, Cali-
fornia. Write Ogden Kellogg, 1795 Moss,
Eugene, OR 97403. PARENTS — PLEASE
FORWARD THIS INFORMATION TO YOUR
YOUNG FRIEND.

Postmasters: Send form 3579

FRIENDS BULLETIN
2635 Emerald Street
Eugene, Oregon 97403

Second-Class Postage Paid
at Eugene, Oregon

Margaret’ Brooks

P. O. Box 163

San Feronimo CA 94963